{"id":73130,"date":"2025-07-29T11:28:42","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T02:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/jul\/29\/lafufu-chinese-fake-labubu-plush-toy-doll-popmart"},"modified":"2025-07-29T11:28:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T02:28:42","slug":"labubu-underground-lafufu-makers-defy-chinese-authorities-to-feed-the-worlds-appetite-for-viral-doll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=73130","title":{"rendered":"Labubu underground: Lafufu makers defy Chinese authorities to feed the world\u2019s appetite for viral doll"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The \u2018ugly-cute\u2019 elf sold by Chinese company Pop Mart has become a sensation and the authorities are aggressively cracking down on fakes \u2013 pushing production into the shadows<\/p>\n<p>Trolleys piled high with decapitated silicon monster heads, tattooed dealers lurking in alleyways, bin bags of contraband hidden behind shop counters: welcome to the world of Lafufus.<\/p>\n<p>Fake Labubus, also known as Lafufus, are flooding the hidden market. As demand for the collectable <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/2025\/jun\/10\/china-bans-banks-labubu-dolls\">furry keyrings<\/a> soars, entrepreneurs in the southern trading hub of Shenzhen are wasting no time sourcing imitation versions to sell to eager Labubu hunters. But the Chinese authorities, keen to protect a rare soft-power success story, are cracking down on the counterfeits.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/jul\/29\/lafufu-chinese-fake-labubu-plush-toy-doll-popmart\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The \u2018ugly-cute\u2019 elf sold by Chinese company Pop Mart has become a sensation and the authorities are aggressively cracking down on fakes \u2013 pushing production into the shadowsTrolleys piled high with decapitated silicon monster heads, tattooed dealers lu&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4704,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,6,50,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-business","category-china","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4704"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73130"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73189,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73130\/revisions\/73189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}